The Expendables

Splendid, brilliant, brilliant stuff. a truly brilliant Hollywood action movie.

this film treads the fine line between not taking itself to seriously and not sending itself up. all the characters and actors believe in what they are doing and commit to it, despite all the characters being wafer thin travelling along a plot that you could write on the back of a postage stamp.

But it doesn't matter, this is how action movies used to be made, back in the 80's. and watching this film it took me back to my early youth watching scharzenegger (yes i was a big arnie fan back in the day) be invincible on VHS at home whilst my parents were out because i was under 18, brilliant films, brilliant times.

to coin a cliche, they just don't make them like this anymore - action film has evolved as a genre - they are more thoughtful and intelligent with more complex characters and story structure, the most obvious example of this i Jason Bourne from the Bourne trilogy. these new action films are great and more complete films for sure, but there is still tremendous fun to be had in simple testosterone fuelled action heros creating havoc - and stallone does this with aplomb.

to sum up, watching the expendables it reminded me of Team America: World Police in which this type film is parodied so brilliantly, because of these parodies it has been a while since someone has had the balls to make such a film and to take it seriously - The Expendables is the film to do this. brilliant fun.

4 stars